7, 6, 5... Or More Precisely: Banks, Dwight, Shaw

This is an impossibly tough poll question.

I hate you guys.

But Dwight had sooo many amazing plays and had very solid NFL career. On top of that, I have to say this was so much more “worth it.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEESQi4krZI&feature=PlayList&p=5D6C289DEE36588E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=17

So I didn’t really get to experience the true glory of Timmy D – all I have are a few game memories on TV and the glorious YouTube highlights.

Conversely, I was able to experience Banks’ improbably awesome run of greatness in-person and that edges it ever so slightly for me. I still think his performance against Northwestern in 2002 is the most perfect game I’ve ever seen out of a QB. Just pure FLAWLESS VICTORY right there.

I was there, and I’ve often wondered what might have been if the second half of that game had actually been played. I’ve never seen a live game just go blank like that at the half, and for The President of the United States to call me personally to assure me that the final, official, score was 0-0 due to “national security issues.” I stopped smoking and lost 40 pounds around that same time. Weird. I just remember how supportive everyone was back then, and how comfortable my robes used to be.

Without question, Tim Dwight. Tremendous. Very very tremendous. Exclamation point!

What?

Yes please.
Sorry, that may have been low-brow, but the choice is the same.

I went with T. Dwight though because A) I saw his awesomeness live, and B) He did it all.
Not only did he single handedly knock my high school out of the playoffs one game away from The Dome, but he also played O,D and ST. I mean who can you name from Iowa that could have scored a touchdown catch/run/pass, a kickoff/punt return for touchdown, and also made a game changing tackle all in the same game? Timmy D is the only one that comes to mind other than maybe Kinnick.
I watched the “Human Missile” in person as he blew up nearly anyone he tackled- – he had great timing on ST coverage- – and I was on hand for a couple punt returns for touchdown. He was a special individual to more than just his mother.

That having been said, Brad Banks is the reason I was able to watch every Iowa game in 2002 even though I moved to Colorado after we knocked Roethlisberger out of the Heisman race. If we hadn’t had Banks we wouldn’t have got the national t.v. spots and I wouldn’t have been able to fully enjoy the dismantling of Michigan in the Big House (oh, yeah, I was living with four transplants from the Kalamazoo, MI area, so it was REAL sweet- – lots of nose rubbing after two weeks of their trash talk leading up to the game).
When I first arrived in CO there were a lot of folks saying “ISU?” I told them “HELL NO!” and said to keep an eye on the Hawks. By late October everyone in my small town was at least a part time Hawks fan. Everyone at my main watering hole sang the Hawkeye Victory Polka every Saturday, and in January there was a bar full of USC haters singing drunken Irish durges during the second half of the game-that-should-never-have-happened.

Mainly because every time he touched the ball, there was the very real posibility that he would turn the opposing defense into a blooper reel with yakety sax background music.

Then again I was expecting Jake for #6.

than any Hawk we’re liable ever to see. Blowing up guys as a gunner, or returnng kicks, or running reverses, or throwing passes, or whatnot—the guy could play.

Nevertheless, for reasons I’ve never understood, something happened to him his senior year. I don’t have the stats in front of me, but about halfway thru the season, he disappeared a bit. I know that Sherman was hurt, but we seemed incapable of getting Timmy in the game oftentimes. Between Tavian and Timmy, we should’ve gone crazy on offense even with Reiners as QB, one way or another.

Banks was tremendous, but in true Bill James fashion, one must choose between peak value and career value. His peak value is about as high as a Hawk can get. But career—like Tavian, he was a bolt of lightning, then gone.

Shaw was as tough of a player as we’ve ever had, especially running the ball into, around, and over defenders. And he did it for us year in and out. Who was that big Michigan tight end that they seemed to have on the field for, like nine years? I’m sure Sedrick seemed like that to our opponents.

In the end, though, it’s Timmy. Lose Banks, lose Sedrick, and Hawkeye history is diminished, but not changed.

But I cannot imagine Hawkeye football lore and history without #6, and that’s why Dwight is the correct choice. He’s a legacy player, like Kinnick, Slater, Karras, and Long.

It’s around the 4:30 mark.

Vintage Hawkeye highlights

Lots of cool stuff in that video, actually.

My favorite part of the Brad Banks video is when he completely disassembles his material being. Totally jukes several Purdont defenders. Re-assembles himself in time to make that awesome throw to D. Clark. That game is forever burnt onto my retinas as total IOWA AWESOME!